Dr Jason Braithwaite BSc PhD

Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology & Brain Science

Contact details

School of PsychologyUniversity of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

About

Dr Jason Braithwaite is a Senior Lecturer in Cognitive Psychology and Brain Science at the Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. He heads the Selective Attention & Awareness Laboratory (SAAL) which has been supported with previous funding from the Leverhulme Trust, ESRC, BBSRC, RCUK, The Bial Foundation. He currently heads projects in diverse fields from research into inhibitory processes underlying visual selection to biases in perspective-taking and embodiment processes underlying anomalous bodily experiences (i.e., the out-of-body experience). His research has been published in top international peer-reviewed journals and has received world-wide media attention.

Current projects in the laboratory are focusing on the neruocognitive correlates of hallucinatory experiences of the self including (i) out-of-body expeirences, (ii) sensed-presence experiences (iii) depersonalization experiences and the 'self'; (iv) embodiment and emotion, and (v) other body-distortion experiences. Techniques in the laboratory typically involve, reaction times / accuracy, psychophysiology (electrodermal activity / skin conductance responses / body temp / facial EMG), and there is the opportunity to work with tDCS, TMS, EEG and fMRI.

Lecturer in Psychology & Neuroscience
Senior Roberts Fellowship Research Fellow (2005-2010)
British Academy Research Fellow (2003-2006)
Economic and Social Research Council - Research Fellow (2002-2003)

Postgraduate supervision

Prospective research students

I welcome enquiries from potential students who are interested in pursuing projects in any of my research areas. I am happy to supervise research projects for final-year undergraduates, Mres students and invite students interested in pursuing a PhD to discuss such possibilities. Current ongoing projects are in the field of anomalous bodily experiences, hallucinations of the self, embodiment, anomalous cognition, neurocognitive correlates of hallucination.

Previous PhD students

Lucy Andrews (ESRC 3+1 studentship) completed Nov 2010

Previous MSc students

Emma Broglia, Lucy Andrews , Lucy Joyce, Hayley Dewe, Kelly James

Research

Research Interests

Selective Attention, Awareness, Consciousness

My central research interests are in the fields of Visual Cognition, Cognitive Neuropsychology and Visual Cognitive Neuroscience. More specifically, I am interested in the role of visual selective attention in visual awareness. Much of my work has revolved around using visual search techniques to investigate instances of 'sustained inattentional-blindness' to new information as a function of the information observers are currently ignoring.

Perspective taking

During normal perceptual experience the brain is capable of constructing a number of perspective-based representations based in differing frames-of reference (i.e., egocentric, allocentric, exocentric). With colleagues (Dr Dana Samson & Dr Ian Apperly) we are investigating the processes of how we adopt the visual perspective of others in order to imagine and reason about the world from their point of view (perspective taking).

Hallucination/Anomalous Cognition/Delusions

Studying the brain and cognition when it goes wrong has been a helpful approach to both neuropsychology (i.e., brain-damaged patients) and clinical neurophysiology (i.e., experiences associated with schizophrenia, pathologies, illness etc). Similarly, investigating instances of anomalous cognition in normal observers can be very revealing for brain-models of behaviour. I am interested in many aspects in relation to hallucinations/delusions in both the normal population and patient groups. I am also interested in the cognitive neuroscience of strange experiences, with particular reference to Anomalous bodily experiences including; the Out-of-Body Experience (OBE), Near-Death Experiences (NDE), the Sensed presence experience (SPE), breakdowns in Self-monitoring, Reality Discrimination, Anomalous beliefs, Visual Aura etc. Just what can the strange experience tell us about the functioning of the human brain?"

School of Psychology 3-year PhD studentship 1999-2002. Visual search in space and time: Where attention and inattention collide (£26,000)

Other activities

I support the promotion of Psychology, Neuroscience and Science in the public domain. I have written accessible documents in this area and provide student resources and lectures on critical thinking/scientific reasoning. I also lecture widely at public science events/conferences.

I am also a member and supporter of 'Sense about Science'. I have made numerous media appearances to promote my research. My work has been covered by BBCR4 "All in the mind" and "The Big Bang", National Geographic Channel, Sky Discovery, ITV, Channel 4, Channel 5, The Times Online, The Daily Telegragh Magazine, The Guardian, New Scientist, The [UK] Skeptic magazine, British Festival of Science (2010 Aston University), and numerous regional media.

I am also a STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) ambassador as part of promoting the wider engagement with science.

Laboratory

Established and heads the Selective Attention & Awareness laboratory (SAAL) in the School of Psychology. The laboratory is equipped with the latest PCs and software for behavioural experiments (E-prime, Presentation, Matlab, C++, DMDX), fast and stable CRT monitors (120Hz) for visual presentations.

Braithwaite, J.J., & Dewe, H (2014). The dark side of the mind: Inducing anomalous bodily experiences in those predisposed to hallucinatory out-of-body experiences. Presentation given at the Annual scientific meeting of the Psychobiology section of the British Psychological Society, Sept 2014, UK.

Dewe, H., & Braithwaite, J.J (2014). Neurocognitive correlates of anomalous body experiences with the induction of the rubber-hand illusion. The 25th Anniversary meeting of The British Neuropsychological Society. Oxford, June 2014.

Takahashi, C., & Braithwaite (2014). The presence of aberrant perceptions and hallucination reflects a hyperexcitable cortex: Evidence from a Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) study on non-clinical hallucinators. The 25th Anniversary meeting of The British Neuropsychological Society. Oxford, June 2014.

Takahashi, C., & Braithwaite,J.J (2014). Neuroscience and anomalous experience: Cortical hyperexcitability and the out-of-body experience. Presentation given at the Annual conference of the British Psychological Society, May 2014, Birmingham, UK.

Braithwaite, J.J., & Dewe, H (2014). The dark side of the mind: Inducing anomalous bodily experiences in those predisposed to out-of-body experiences. Presentation given at the Annual conference of the British Psychological Society, May 2014, Birmingham, UK.

Takahashi, C., & Braithwaite,J.J (2014). Neuroscience and anomalous experience: Corticaly hyperexcitability and the out-of-body experience. Presentation given at the Annual conference of the British Psychological Society, May 2014, Birmingham, UK

Braithwaite, J. J. & Broglia, E. (2012). A psychophysiological investigation into the Electrodermal components underlying the Rubber-hand illusion in those who report out-of-body experiences (OBEs) and kindred hallucinations of the 'self'. Presentation given to 16th Annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, July, 2012, Brighton UK.

Braithwaite, J.J. (2008) Putting Magnetism in its Place: A Critical Examination of the Weak- Intensity Magnetic field Account for Anomalous Haunt-type Experiences. Journal For theSociety of Psychical Research. 890, 34-50.

Braithwaite, J.J, & Townsend, M (2008) Sleeping With the Entity; Part II: Temporally Complex Distortions in the Magnetic field from Human Movement in a Bed Located in an English Castles Reputedly Haunted Bedroom. European Journal of Parapsychology. 23.1, 90-126.

Braithwaite, J.J., & Townsend, M. (2006) Good vibrations: The case for a specific effect of infrasound in instances of anomalous experience has yet to be empirically demonstrated. Journal for the Society of Psychical Research, 70 (885), 211-224.